Detention
by ofblueandgrey
Summary: Perhaps, one day, he would remember her last words. In Azkaban, there were but a blur of colors and letters, swirling about in a haze of dust. One day, if ever he were a free man, he would remember them.
1. Prologue

A/N: I've delayed this thing long enough - so here it is! Enjoy!

**Prologue to Detention**

Darkness enveloped everything. All that could be seen were shadows, constantly moving about - if only an inch or so - restless with hunger and anticipation. All emotion was sucked from the atmosphere, as helium from a punctured balloon. Quickly, stealthily. But noiselessly.

For, it was the silence that drove most away from sanity. The swift extraction of all feeling has no theme music.

There is a line drawn in life. A line that is crossed, more often than not, without return. One would be more settled to insanity in this place. There was no escaping them – they who were the drivers of the insane – for they haunted your dreams. And in your waking moments, when you instinctively reached out for the relief of the conscious world, you were drained once more. Driven under by the vacuum created by the figures in black, and drowned in a world of your own creation. A world of your own despairing thoughts.

Azkaban prison had no need for weaponry – no need for fences or barricades. The mere isolation that Poseidon provided was enough. After all, who would _want_ to reach the Forbidden Island? Murderers, thieves, liars, and Benedicts were held there – but that was not what really kept away the young delinquents and troublemakers of the wizarding community.

It was the Dementors – those who drove men to madness with their mere presence. Screaming in the prison was only heard with the arrival of a new inmate. It only ever lasted a few days. But in those days of broken silence, the other inmates reveled. For, if the attention of the Dementors was drawn away from them for even the shortest time, it was a relief. Some of them even gained back memories – _happy_ memories.

For one prisoner in particular, some of the happiest memories he regained were also some of the more horrible. Some were of a young woman crying. Some were of her screaming uncontrollably. And the last were her dying words. The girl that was involved, however, was what made the difference – was what made them _bearable_. She was his Rae of light. These were terrible memories, and because of that the Dementors should have left them with their owner. But it was Rae that made the difference.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he could imagine her silky black hair curling around her face in the wind; he could imagine her stormy gray eyes staring into his liquid black ones. He inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of the past. _Tangerines_. But she was only a memory, now. No matter how real she had once been – no matter how much love and passion she had once brought into his life – for, now she was gone.

Perhaps, one day, he would remember her last words. In Azkaban, they were but a blur of colors and letters, swirling about in a haze of dust. One day, if ever he were a free man, _he would remember them_. It was not a possibility. It was for certain.

Sirius Black opened his eyes. The moon was rising, and cast a beam of liquid silver into his cell. He stood, shakily, and peered through the barred windows into the celestial world above. There was his star – Sirius. The smaller stars about it connected seamlessly to form Canis Major. Near to the heavenly dog was his best friend, the hunter, Orion. One day, they would be together again.

The screaming had subsided now, and the presence of the Dementors was drawing near again. How he dreaded the return of the vile creatures! They would drain him once more. They would take away his Rae. His only Rae of hope.

A sigh escaped his chapped lips as he felt the memories begin to fade once more. Sirius reached beneath the blankets on his cot and pulled from them a notebook – a very old and battered muggle notebook. He flipped open the cover and read the first page.

_The Road goes ever on and on_

_Down from the door where it began._

_Now far ahead the Road has gone,_

_And I must follow, if I can,_

_Pursuing it with eager feet,_

_Until it joins some larger way_

_Where many paths and errands meet._

_And whither then? I cannot say._

It was a message. He had always known it – yet, he had never really figured it out. Of course he had tried, but always to no avail. He also knew it happened to be from a book, although he had never bothered to read it. _If I ever get out of here, I should,_ he found himself thinking.

Sirius shut his eyes once more, closing the notebook. They were approaching his cell, now, and he knew it like the dawn. He could sense it before he could see it. Wasn't there some wise and philosophical phrase that went along with that? He struggled to recall it. Remus had always been the intellectual one of the group. _Oh, yeah._

"Walk by faith, and not by sight."


	2. I Spy

**Chapter One**

To Rae, Hogwarts had never looked more inviting than when she was stuck outside in a greenhouse. Professor Calhoun wasn't that bad – nor was the class. But it was the fact that it was forty degrees out and slightly humid that made her wish for the bell to hurry up more than ever. Her skin was cold, but at the same time, sort of damp and sticky, making her all the more uncomfortable.

Rae sneezed as she took a rather strong whiff of fertilizer. Several people in front of her turned around, a few of them looking rather disgusted. Rae had never really understood why some people turned their noses up at her. It wasn't like she was in Gryffindor.

There was the bell. Rae stood up and, being at the back of the class, was the first one out of the greenhouse. She walked briskly up the hill towards the castle, eager to get into the warm dry air. Her pants rustled quietly, and the hem of them drug in the frostbitten grass. She tugged at her cloak, adjusting it to suit the position of her bag.

The Entrance Hall greeted her with several hundred students, all of them making their way into the Great Hall for lunch. Tossing her bag and cloak behind a large statue, she pushed her way through the crowd.

A sharp jab in the side knocked Rae over sideways, landing her on the floor.

"Watch out, damn it!" she yelled, blowing her black hair out of her face, though she doubted whether she could be heard over the noise. She had not even seen who had caused her sudden change of position. Rae tried to stand up, though this was difficult to do, considering that nobody was paying her the slightest bit of attention. She swore under her breath several more times before feeling someone grab her by the wrist and hoist her back up to her feet.

Rae's eyes, fast though they were, weren't fast enough to catch the face of who had helped her up. She stared around blindly, only to be caught once again in the ever-steady current of students.

In a matter of minutes, she was seated at the Slytherin table at the far end, her back to the wall. Rae had learned long ago not to present her back to the enemy – especially at meal times. Food was much more aerodynamic than it seemed.

Two tables away, Sirius Black shook his own black hair out of his face as he looked up from his conversation. His eyes traveled along each table in the Great Hall, finally coming to a rest on the dark girl sitting by herself at the far end of the Slytherin table.

He had seen her once before – in the hallway about ten minutes earlier. She was wearing the same pants as he – highly recognizable, Tripp bondage pants. Her shirt bore the AC/DC emblem on the front.

She was clearly a rocker – as was he. He looked down at his own faded Black Sabbath shirt he had bought four years ago at his first show.

"Padfoot? Hello? Earth to Padfoot! Wake up, man!"

James Potter's voice echoed in his ear, making him jump in a startled sort of way.

"Wha- what?" He averted his eyes back down to his best friend, who was looking at him rather skeptically.

"Padfoot, you really need to stop spacing out like that-"

"I wasn't spacing out!" he defended, waving his arms. "I was just- well-"

"He doesn't know." Remus Lupin said knowledgably.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed, once again looking over towards the girl.

"Who are you looking at?" a boy called Peter Pettigrew asked, sitting down on the other side of Remus.

"You mean _what_ am I looking at?" he said jerkily, snapping his eyes back down to the Gryffindor table.

"No, _who_," he said almost accusingly. "It certainly wasn't a _what-_"

"_Who_, eh?" James smirked, his eyes following to where Sirius's had been. "Would it be... oh, I don't know – Miss Blackness over there at the Slytherin table?"

"N- no..." he said immediately. Sirius could feel his face coloring. This was getting frustrating. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"Any girl in this school would give her right arm to date you. And you choose one who isn't very well acquainted with the sunlight."

"Shut up...." Sirius muttered, then continued his lunch, James still smirking at him every so often.

Rae ate quickly and retrieved her bag and cloak from behind the statue before heading down a few staircases into the dungeons for Potions. She would make a quick stop by her dorm before heading to class.

"Blood work," she murmured to the solid brick wall. It became hazy in a small archway, and then disappeared to a fine mist. Upon her entering, the passage sealed itself. Rae dropped her bag in a chair and headed to the left of two staircases leading down through yet another solid brick wall.

Even at midday, the rooms were lit with an eerie greenish glow emitting from the odd shaped lamps that hung overhead. Rae opened the trunk at the end of her four-poster bed and dug around until she came upon her potion's book,_ 1,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi._

Rae stopped short of heading back up the stairs and took off her cloak again, replacing it with a black, hooded sweatshirt that read Famous Stars and Straps. Picking up the book, she mounted the stairs and arrived in the common room again. A rather greasy looking kid, who was sitting beside the hearth, jumped as her chains clanked slightly and announced her arrival.

Rae ignored him. Severus Snape was in the same year as her, although he didn't look it. He was extremely skinny, and had greasy black hair that just touched his shoulders – and he was always nervous. Any other person in the school would say he was "one of those Goths," but in truth, he was nothing but a weird kid who was up to his eyeballs in the Dark Arts.

Shouldering her bag once again, she walked out the entrance and back up the corridor towards the dungeons that were used as classrooms.

The usual small crowd had gathered outside Madame Julienne's dungeon. Madame Julienne – a squat witch with an attitude to curl your hair – was the potions mistress of Hogwarts. Most of the time, she was a nice lady, but when she was in one of her tempers, you had best steer clear of crossing her.

"Hurry up, now, everyone!" she called out over the chattering class from just inside the dungeon. Her tone of voice said that today she was in a favorable mood – always a good thing.

Rae filtered herself through the crowd of Slytherins and Gryffindors and took her usual seat at the back of the class. She set her bag down beside her desk and folded her arms, resting her head in them. She stared straight ahead, her eyes sort of out of focus.


	3. Memories Consume

Thanks for the reivews! All - what was it? - one of them? Yeah. I was hoping for more... but whatever. Just tell me what ya think!

**Chapter Two**

The last in the classroom, the Marauders took seats towards the back, whispering about their plans for the evening. Sirius took a quick glance around the room, looking for the girl. He found her quickly - sitting by herself on the back row, staring into nothingness.

Sirius turned back just in time to catch the heat for roaming eyes again.

"I swear... I just don't understand...." James said wonderingly, gazing in the girl's direction, then meeting eyes with Sirius and grinning.

"Prongs... lay off," Remus said, before Sirius could say anything. "Does he make fun of _you_ when you get all weird around Evans?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" James said mockingly.

"What? I don't make fun of you!" Sirius declared. James looked at him. "Well... okay, maybe once-"

"See, Moony? He admits it!" James said with mild satisfaction.

"Hey! I only made fun of you when you first told me about it. I haven't since then!" Sirius defended.

"Oh, just shut up, you all," interjected Peter, in a low voice, clearly trying to end the argument. "Julienne's about to start class."

In truth, their teacher was out in the corridor, telling off Peeves the Poltergeist for throwing dung bombs at a first year.

"Look who it is!" Sirius got really excited, and pointed at the door. "Snivellus! Late for class! Ha!"

James grinned, then pulled out his wand. Sirius followed suit.

Severus Snape had just snuck in, hoping the teacher didn't notice him to be late.

"Snivellus! You're late!" Sirius called, just before sending him a hex that knocked him over in a back flip. The Gryffindor portion of the class roared with laughter, while a few Slytherins smirked at the scene.

Snape struggled to regain his composure. James looked to the front of the class casually and caught a glare from the very person he was looking for. He jumped slightly and ruffled his already overly messy hair before innocently turning back around and pulling Sirius down by the sleeve of his robes. Madame Julienne then walked in the door.

Sirius turned to glance around the room while Madame Julienne disappeared in one of the massive drawers in her desk. He found her again, and simply stared for a moment.

Rae had ignored the situation at hand. The Marauders were always like this. It wasn't like she couldn't catch them at it any other day.

She was suddenly uncomfortable. The feeling that somebody was watching her sank in, and she raised her gray eyes, only to meet the deep black ones of Sirius Black.

They held each other's gaze until Madame Julienne's voice broke through the silence.

"Mr. Black! Would you kindly tell us what you're looking at that is so distracting you from this lesson?"

Sirius jerked back around, blinking and saying the first thing that came to mind.

"A fly!"

Madame Julienne looked at him rather skeptically before shaking her head and muttering something inaudible. The rest of the class sniggered, and Sirius realized how stupid he had sounded.

James was biting back laughter with all he had, his face screwed up and his mouth sealed shut, trying to suppress it. He finally threw his head forward on the desk, after several seconds of getting nowhere fast, and buried his face in his bag. All that was to be seen was a pair of reddening ears and a mass of black hair.

Sirius lobbed him in the back of the head as soon as Madame Julienne had turned her back, which only succeeded in making James laugh harder.

"Ouch!" he mouthed at Sirius, holding his hand over the back of his head, but not all together looking like he was in pain. Madame Julienne stood back up and glared at James momentarily for seeming so entertained.

Remus shot a calming spell at James, hoping to shut him up. This resulted in a rather dazed look overcoming his victim's features, though he still giggled a bit stupidly.

Madame Julienne rolled her eyes, sighed, and shook her head again before starting class.

Saturday morning dawned cold and frostbitten, with the first signs of snow floating lazily through the sky. The Marauders were, of course, already up at 8:30. They sat in the common room planning out the next outing to the kitchens. Well, it would actually only be Sirius and James, seeing as Remus would be out that night for the full moon, and Peter would be staying behind to cover for them.

"It'll have to be after midnight, I'm telling you!" Remus declared. James had been refusing to leave after twelve.

"But Filch will be making his rounds of the ground floor at twelve! He'll catch us!"

"Which is exactly why you should leave _after_ midnight!" Remus said, a bit exasperated with him. "And besides," he added as an afterthought, "when have you and Sirius ever gotten caught before when you're by yourselves?"

James thought for a second. "Well... yeah. Now that you mention it...."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Of course we haven't! And I was thinking that Filch went off to bed at two on Sunday mornings. He'll at least be somewhere above the fifth floor, won't he?"

James grinned. "I forgot about that! Well, well, Mr. Black," he said in a mock teacher voice. "You have exceeded my expectations!"

Sirius stood up and knocked James over the side of the couch, then proceeded towards the portrait hole. "Are you three coming?"

James stood up, rubbing his backside. "Yeah. What was that for?" He shot Sirius a glare.

"Not my fault," Sirius said airily, prancing towards the door and swinging his hips in a sort of girly walk. "You shouldn't have been sitting on the arm!" He turned around and batted his eyelashes and giggled - a very good impression of what girls did when they saw James in the hallway.

James couldn't help but crack a grin at his best friend. He could always make a joke about someone or something.

He, Remus, and Peter followed Sirius out the portrait hole and down the quite deserted corridor towards breakfast.

Rae sat in the Entrance Hall on the top step, just out of reach of the softly falling snow. There was a good two inches on the ground already.

She took another bite of the buttered toast in her hand, and looked behind her to see if she was still alone. The oak doors remained closed, and she kept her solitude.

It was normality for her to rise early. Back at home, waking up early was the only way to be alone. Her father always stayed up late at night, and he usually had friends over drinking and watching rugby. He was, after all, a muggle.

Her mother had been a witch, but died two years before she was accepted into Hogwarts at the hands of Voldemort himself. Rae sighed. She had always been very close to her mother, but when she was killed, she seemed to have gone into an everlasting depression. That's where the black clothing had come in.

And the music - she had gotten that from her father. She looked down at the letters across her shirt that read Skydawg. The memory of the night she had gotten it was both beautiful and terrifying.

Rae closed her eyes and thought back to the night her father had announced that he was taking her to see the legendary Gregg and Duane Allman in London.

_A nine-year-old girl with long raven hair and stormy gray eyes entered the kitchen looking for her father. She saw him walk in the back door and ran into his open arms for a hug. His full auburn beard tickled her when he kissed her forehead._

"_Guess what?" He was kneeling down in front of her, a huge grin plastered on his face. _

"_What?" she asked, curiosity and wonderment filling her young voice. _

"_You and I are going to London tonight, Rae!" His eyes sparkled with excitement. "Guess who we're going to be seeing?"_

_The little girl's grin faltered as she struggled to think whom it was they might be seeing that far away. "Um... I dunno, Daddy. Who?"_

"_Skydawg!"_

_Rae's face broke into a grin that easily passed her eyes. A laugh rang out through the kitchen. "Oh, Daddy! Really?"_

_He nodded, hugging her tightly. Ever since Rae had been seven years old, she had always begged her father to play his Skydawg record. He didn't know what she loved so much about it, but the music definitely touched her._

_Around midnight, Rae and her father had pulled into the driveway in his '68 Camero. Yawning, the raven-haired girl stepped out of the car with her father and waited as he unlocked the door. _

_The house was dark and silent - something unusual for the Orion household. The radio was always heard playing from the top of the fireplace, and her mother was always heard singing to it. Not tonight._

_Rae stepped into the living room and flipped the switch. As soon as she did, however, she wished dearly that she hadn't._

_Her mother was in her favorite chair, the chair they had left her in several hours ago. Only, she was slumped over to the side, her book in her left hand, and her wand out in her right. She looked as though somebody had shoved her roughly back into it._

_Rae's breath caught in her chest. Her hand flew up to her throat, feeling around, expecting a hand to be there, obstructing her breathing. Nothing._

_She coughed twice, and inhaled sharply before choking. Her father rushed into the room, looking around, and found her kneeling on the ground, silent tears running mercilessly down her cheeks._

"_Rae? What's wrong? What is it?" He dropped down beside her and cupped her cheeks in his hands, pulling her face up to look at his._

_She lifted her small hand and touched her father's bearded face, as if to see if he was real. Then she pointed at her mother._

_Robbie Orion turned around, wondering if what he was about to see was really as bad as the feeling that had formed in the pit of his stomach. But found that it was worse._

_He let go of Rae and stood up, shaking. Crossing the room in three strides, he lifted his wife's head into his hands, wet from his daughter's tears._

"_Sarah.... No. Wake up!" he whispered, caressing her face. "Come on, honey! Say something. Anything."_

_But he got no answer._

A single tear came down her left cheek. Rae brushed it away furiously. Why was that memory still there? Why couldn't it have left her, as so many other things had done?

Rae stood up and threw her toast out into the snow. She could feel more tears forming behind her eyes, and tried to blink them away.

The door seemed to weigh a ton, as she pulled on it with all her might. It finally gave, and she heard the cracking of ice on the handle as it swung open. She bowed her head down and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, trying to hide the tears she knew were there for the world to see. But she didn't see the world.


	4. Midnight Wanderings Pt 1

**Chapter Three**

Sirius led the Marauding crew down the last staircase, he and James talking to Peter about finding a girlfriend. The poor kid was sixteen years old, and had never had one.

"Honestly, Peter, if you'd just be more open about things, it would be easier to find one!" James was telling him. Peter was listening avidly.

"But what do you mean? 'Be more open.' It sounds like you're saying I should _tell_ girls what I think of them!"

Sirius sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he spotted a familiar cloaked figure with black hair and a tear stained face walking briskly towards what he knew to be the kitchens. Sirius stopped in his tracks to stare after her, causing Remus to walk into him from behind.

"Padfoot!" he exclaimed irritably. "What was that for?"

"What? Oh, sorry, Moony," he said, turning around and helping his friend to his feet.

Remus rolled his eyes and looked at James, who shared his look of slight confusion. James shook his head and Remus sighed. This was most unlike their friend. He was usually the alert one, the jokester. But for the past few days, he seemed entranced.

James decided, right then and there, to confront his friend about it that evening while they were out.

He broke the silence and Sirius's stare by clearing his throat. "Hey… uh…." James wasn't really sure what to say. Sirius blinked.

"You say something, Prongs?"

James sighed and shook his head. "Nothing important. Coming?" He added, taking a head start towards the Great Hall. Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed behind him, Sirius still trying to steal a glance at the girl.

The pear giggled and turned into a doorknob as Rae reached out a black fingernail and gently nudged it. She pulled the newly formed door open and stepped inside the secret kitchens of Hogwarts. A rather small house-elf promptly scurried up to her.

'Hello, Miss Rae' was squeaked from several different voices in turn. The small elf then spoke up, "Does you want some hot chocolate, Miss Rae?"

Rae grinned at him and nodded. "Please."

Her tears had stopped now - she really couldn't help but smile at them, especially Khaki, the one fetching her hot chocolate. Their spirits never seemed to falter. After all, they knew almost nothing about the goings on of the world outside Hogwarts.

A minute later, a large mug of steaming hot chocolate slowly bobbed in her direction. It began to tip slightly to the side, so Rae reached out a hand and lifted it off the small Khaki.

"Thank you, Miss Rae!" he squeaked, relieved of the heavy weight.

Rae smiled down at him. "Don't mention it. Do you have any crisps?"

Khaki beamed, obviously thrilled to be of help. He nodded and hurried off again. Rae removed the lid from her mug and took a quick sip. It was still unbearably hot. But that only meant it would last longer.

Khaki's head bobbed back up to her carrying two large bags of muggle potato crisps, ketchup flavored. Back in her second year, she had convinced the house-elves to keep a few bags of ketchup crisps in the back pantry for her, especially.

"Thanks, Khaki! I'll see you later. Maybe tonight sometime." And with that, she turned to walk out.

She heard Khaki's squeaky voice call out from behind her. "Good bye, Miss Rae!"

Rae smiled to herself and put the bags under her cloak, shifting the mug to her left hand. Her shoes were silent on the cobbled floor, but made a soft padding when she reached the end of the kitchens corridor and entered the area outside the Great Hall. She descended through the door across the hallway that lead back to the dungeons, and made her way to the Slytherin common room.

The moon was full that night, and the stars twinkled mischievously across a sea of black velvet. The snow had stopped for a while, and the night was clear. A distant howling echoed through the trees from the village Hogsmeade.

Peter was sitting by the fire in the common room, reading over the potions notes Remus had lent him. This would be his night alone. While Remus was out for his lycanthropy, his job was to clear up any suspicions as to where James and Sirius had gone.

Up in the sixth year boys' dormitory, James was cleaning a patch of mud from his invisibility cloak and Sirius was looking carefully over the Marauder's map. It was just like any other night, in reality. But something weighed on both of their minds.

"Padfoot, what was the incantation again?" James said quietly.

"I thought Remus told you?" he replied, not taking his eyes from the map.

"He did, but I can't remember it," He said, scratching his head. "And if a patch of mud is just floating around the school at night, it's not exactly going to look innocent."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Prongs," Sirius said, pushing the subject away with a casual wave of his hand. "Nobody's going to see us."

At half past one, the duo trooped down the staircase and towards the portrait hole. They stopped just short of exiting and waited on Peter.

A loud cracking sound erupted from the other side of the room, and a pile of parchment burst into flame. His goal had been to turn every head left in the common room towards him in somewhat of a diversion.

While Sirius just stood there shaking with suppressed laughter at the frantic look on Peter's face, James took advantage of the scene and pulled Sirius by the arm, leading him out the portrait hole.

When out in the corridor of Gryffindor Tower, Sirius (almost fully recovered) pulled the Map out and checked the surrounding areas. James adjusted the cloak to better cover their feet. It seemed that both of them had grown a few inches since the last time they had used the cloak.

"All clear down to the right, and below the first staircase," Sirius whispered. James nodded his approval and started walking.

It was routine to only give approval for the first five minutes of walking. A few years back, they had had a few mishaps with calling an 'all clear all the way.' Since then, they checked for 'all clear' as they went. Although, they doubted they'd have any troubles tonight, what with Filch off to bed early.

James wondered when would be a safe time to talk. He glanced down at the Map. Not a soul in sight. Maybe later….

Sirius's mind was left to wonder in the silence. And wonder, it did - straight back to the girl that he had pulled up in the hallway out of pure Gryffindor kindness. The same girl he had seen with a tear streaked face at breakfast that morning. Why did she interest him so? He had yet to get an actual good look at her, minus the three seconds in potions the other day when he had seen her eyes. Those eyes were so mystical. Stormy and gray, they were. There was something about them that was almost fearful.

Lost in thought, and not really paying attention to where he was headed, he tripped over one of his shoelaces and fell hard to the stone floor, dragging James down with him.

"Black!" he muttered furiously, frantically trying to cover himself and his friend with the cloak.

"What? I'm sorry!" he whispered, slightly frantic himself, seeing as the map had floated off some six feet to the left. He grabbed James's arm and dragged him and the cloak over within grabbing distance of the parchment. He stretched his arm out from under the safety zone and snatched it up.

"Sirius, what were you thinking? Are you trying to get us caught?" James hissed in his ear.

Sirius laid a hand on his friend's shoulder and gently pushed him back down away from his ear.

"It was an accident," he said slowly, trying to keep his voice down. "I tripped on my shoelace, no big deal. And look at the map-" he showed it to James "-there's nobody around…."

He trailed off and a look of shock came over his face. There was another dot traveling along their corridor. It had stopped moving some ten feet behind them. James turned around as quietly as he could. Sirius did the same.

There was nobody there. Sirius squinted his eyes as best he could. Through the almost pitch-black corridor, he saw a figure move. It crossed a patch of moonlight strung across the wall, and he stopped squinting.

There was definitely somebody there. It certainly wasn't Filch, as it was several inches shorter, and the size ruled out Mrs. Norris as well. Making certain who it was exactly was made rather difficult by the fact that a Disillusionment Charm covered them.

Sirius held his breath and looked back at the Map. The caption by the strange dot read 'Rae Orion.'

---

Thank you, to my lone reviewer! This one's for you!


	5. Midnight Wanderings Pt 2

**Chapter Four**

She began to slowly back into the shadows, after realizing that she had placed herself in a spotlight. She had heard what sounded like a body landing on a stone floor, and then two different voices, both males. The second was slightly deeper than the first, which sounded more urgent. What they were saying, she didn't pick up, but she had gotten the feeling that they were either leaving or had seen her.

A bit unnerved, Rae turned back around and continued her venture to the seventh floor.

Paranoia had set in on her slightly. She passed a ghost and Peeves, but no solid, honest-to-goodness human beings on her way up.

As she reached the seventh floor, a long stream of moonlight fell across her face. She blinked into the silvery light and continued to the end of the hall. A statue came into her view of several trolls and an old warlock in ballet shoes. The trolls were sitting around the warlock and taking turns poking him with their clubs. Rae shook her head and closed her eyes.

She concentrated as best she could on solitude, while pacing back and forth along the blank stretch of wall in front of the statue. A door appeared not two minutes later.

She smiled and entered it. The room contained a shelf of books along the wall beside a large window seat, a large rack of 8-tracks sat on the wall to the right, along with a magical player, and a small table with a comfy chair sat against the wall to the left. Against the wall beside the door, sat a large squashy couch.

Taking her wand out of her pocket, she removed the Disillusionment charm from herself, and then took two bags of muggle crisps from her cloak and laid them on the table.

Heading over to the 8-tracks, she searched the neatly placed racks for a recording of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Alphabetical order - she went to the V's. There he was - three different tapes. It could only mean that these were the extended play versions, her favorite.

Rae quickly stuck it in the player and turned the volume up. A moment's silence - then the beautiful melancholy sounds of a slow bass and a guitar to put Angus Young to shame filled the small room. She smiled and walked over to the window. It was covered in condensation, so she took her hand and wiped an opening from which she could gaze.

Snow covered the ground, and from the looks of it, the wind was blowing harshly over the trees. The moon wasn't to be seen. Rae supposed it was either too far above her current range of vision, or the clouds covered it. A few stars shone in patches here and there, but they were no longer to be seen across the entire sky.

She suddenly shivered. Standing by the window, it was much colder than she thought it would be. Turning around, she yawned and stretched her arms over her head. The couch was starting to look awfully cozy about now.

Extinguishing a few candles to dim the light, she sat down and threw her feet up. She noticed there was a blanket folded neatly across the arm of the couch, and wondered if it had been there when she first walked in. Probably not. That was, after all, what this room was named for.

Rae snatched it up, shivering again, and hastily unfolded it. Once it was over her comfortably, she curled up facing the back of the couch and quickly dozed off.

The two loose Marauders wandered a few corridors, carefully indulging in mugs of hot chocolate as they went. James was holding the map, while Sirius was holding a bundle of sweet bakery snacks wrapped up in a large linen napkin. James's mind wandered back to the problem at hand.

"Padfoot, do you, er, want to go up to the seventh floor?" The seventh floor meant the secret room of Hogwarts.

"Uh, sure," Sirius whispered. "What for?"

"I- er-" James stuttered a bit "-I wanted to talk to you, and I don't really want to do it out here in the corridor. We might be heard."

Sirius nodded. He knew that James was referring to the school ghosts, other midnight-running students, or Peeves.

They walked up another few staircases and arrived on the seventh floor corridor in silence. Silver moonbeams crossed each other on the wall stones, and danced across the few suits of armor. The wind howled through the cracks around the windows and made a ghastly sound that faintly echoed.

The statue of several trolls and an old warlock drew nearer on the right, and a door stood across from it on their left. James often wondered about the first time they had come across it.

_Three boys stood stock still on a staircase that had, quite suddenly, decided to move itself. A few more steps sprouted at the top while the rest of them heightened and widened. The railings on either side grew out a few more feet, and it connected with a landing two floors above._

_The shortest boy shook his shaggy black hair out of his face and began to walk again. When he realized the other two weren't following him, he turned back around and motioned for them to come. The tallest boy took a quick look around with a pair of large hazel eyes and slowly took a few more steps up to his friend. The last boy ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair and sighed, figuring he had no choice but to follow his two friends. He dearly hoped they didn't get caught._

_The sky darkened and thunder rumbled as the three emerged on the seventh floor corridor. The rain that was beating down seemed to be much louder on this level than it was on any of the others._

_The first boy jumped at a crack of lightening, and the other two laughed at him. He smiled sheepishly at them, going a bit red and muttering something about being silly._

_Finding a place to explore wasn't exactly hard in this place. They had found the kitchens earlier that month, and discovered the wonders of the house-elves. Now they were set on the upper levels of the castle. Heading out, they had planned on searching the fifth floor, but had gotten ahead of themselves on a moving staircase. The seventh was a wonder in itself._

_There were hardly any hidden corridors behind tapestries, and there were very few portraits in between the suits of armor. A door here and there; a few were mere broom cupboards, and others were spare classrooms and staircases that lead to nothing._

_And there was a door. A large, shiny oak door with a beautiful metal handle - a new door. The blonde haired boy stopped his companions to point out the new door. Hazel eyes followed light green and he, too, laid eyes on the new discovery. A shaggy head took action._

_The door made the faintest of creaks, as it swung inward, revealing a large room with a magical blackboard mounted on the wall. On it, a piece of chalk was dancing, leaving words to form themselves in its trail. It dropped itself, momentarily, and the words stood still enough to be read._

_Here, you will find what you greatly desire,_

_Be it rest, or a puddle of mire._

_Maybe you need a treat of lore,_

_In here, my friend, are many doors._

_This room may come, and it may go,_

_But need it dearly, and it will show._

_Welcome to the Room of Requirement!_

_Eyes wide, jaws agape, the threesome stood in awe. A room that would come and go as it was needed, and could possibly fill itself with whatever you desired?_

_They decided to keep it a secret. If anybody else found out about this room, it was likely that the secret would be spilled, and the room trespassed upon._

James's mind wandered back to the present. As they approached, his thoughts seemed to fail him with knowledge that the door was a secret. It was already there.

Sirius seemed to have spotted it too, for he sputtered into his cup and stopped in his tracks. They shared a momentary look before one of them spoke.

"There's got to be somebody already in there," James said under his breath. "The door shouldn't be there already."

"I know. Should we go in?" Sirius replied in the same voice.

"I don't know," he said. "How about we just knock, and if we don't hear anything, we'll go in - with the cloak on, of course."

"Sounds good to me."

Three quick raps on the door - nothing from the inside. Wait. A few more knocks. Still nothing.

Sirius handed off his bundle and cocoa to James, and took the Map into his possession. There were his and James's dots. On the other side of the wall to their left was the name Rae Orion. It still hadn't moved. He grasped the handle and pulled on it. The creak seemed much louder than it was in actuality.

Two steps in, they stopped. Nobody was in the room - or so it seemed to James and Sirius.

Movement to their left made James nearly jump out of his skin. Sirius almost fell over when he felt his friend jerk.

A head emerged from under a dark red blanket. James was the first to see it, and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was asleep. Sirius poked his head around and felt his eyes grow wide immediately. It was her.

Her black hair was tousled and lay across her face. The parts that lined her face were damp from a cold sweat. Black circled around her eyes and a bit of glitter rested on her eyelashes. Her breathing was soft, as were her features, most unlike the times Sirius had seen them.

Sirius was now bent very close to her, breathing in the faint scent of tangerines. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. Mystery was etched onto her face, and secrets hid behind her closed eyes.

Sirius was pulled back just before the girls forehead collided with his own. Rae sat bolt upright and stared around the room. James and Sirius held their breath.

She let herself fall back onto the couch with a soft thump. Sirius leaned over James again, this time much slower and more carefully now that she was awake. He could see a few small locks of hair around her face were, again, dampening with sweat, and wondered if she had been dreaming.

Rae sighed. She didn't seem to have noticed that two invisible figures were standing over her. James shot a nervous glance at Sirius - how were they going to get out of here?

Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He bit his lower lip a bit on the left and furrowed his brow. He looked at James and then down at Rae. Her eyes were shut, though they seemed restless. Breathing was not coming in sharp gasps from her anymore. It was now slow and controlled. She was headed back to sleep.

Sirius leaned back to normal standing position. The two stood there for a few minutes just looking around the room. When they thought it was safe, James took another look at her. Her eyes were now calm, and her breathing was just as it was when they had first walked in.

Sirius twisted around and turned the knob as slowly as he could, and then pulled the door open. He motioned for James to go ahead, while he stole one last look at the beauty before him. A smile crept onto his face. Not a grin, as was his usual fashion, but a real smile.

----

Thank you, Vanessa and Melissa!


	6. The Christmas Jinx and the Leap of Faith

**Chapter Five**

Christmas break seemed to have crept up on the entire castle. The snow wasn't as heavy as it usually was at this time of year. Hagrid was just beginning the process of covering up the vegetables, and Professor Calhoun had yet been forced to cancel Herbology lessons due to the weather.

The Marauders were all leaving for Christmas. Sirius would be staying at James's house. Remus and Peter would be going to their respective homes until the day after Christmas, when they would be staying at the Potter residence.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter had always welcomed James's friends with open arms. They knew the Black family, and did not altogether approve of them. Sirius was the exception.

He was nothing like his parents, nor the rest of his family, for that matter. His family was Pureblood back as far as they could trace on the large rug containing the family tree that hung in his mother's sitting room. The woman had actually had the nerve to remove his name from it.

It wasn't as though he cared, though. Sure, it had torn his nerves up at the time, but after contemplating, he realized that he didn't belong there at all. Their family tree probably contained more Death Eaters than several trees combined. It wasn't where he belonged.

James's father was an auror - a very famous auror, at that. He and several others had recently been tracking a dark wizard by the name of Lord Voldemort. So far, they had gotten nowhere close to him, but, then, some of them seriously doubted whether he was even a threat.

His mother was a small witch with short sandy blonde hair and large hazel eyes, much like her son's. While her husband was out, she kept order in the Potter household. Well, even if her husband was home, she still kept the order. James had never been one to cross her - neither had his father. When her temper kicked in, there was no stopping it.

James and Sirius met Mrs. Potter at Platform 9 ¾ the evening they were released from school. She was happy to see both of them, and the sight of Sirius did not surprise her. Both received a bone breaking hug and a kiss on the cheek. Sirius had actually taken to calling her "Mum" over the previous summer. She didn't mind.

Hogwarts' halls were nowhere near as full as they had once been. Most students had left because of their parent's fears of current Dark activity. Other's parents wanted them to stay where they were for that same reason. Rae's father didn't seem to care.

He had written her back a short note telling her to do what she thought needed to be done, and that he wished her a happy Christmas. Otherwise, the letter was devoid of any kind of emotion. But then, most all of his letters these days were that way. Letters. Could you even call them that? They were merely responses to attempts at long distance conversation she had made.

She sighed heavily and turned her face upward, taking in a fresh view of the magical ceiling above her. The snow was falling much faster and thicker than it had been earlier that morning. At this rate, there could well be three feet of snow by Christmas day. She wasn't complaining.

Rae's next breath was unexpectedly filled with the steamy scent of chocolate, cinnamon, and cream. She quickly gazed back down at the table and saw in front of her a mug filled with the special creation of Khaki. A grin spread across her face, and she made a mental note to pay him a visit during her break.

A few sips later, she took her mug and started out of the hall. The few Slytherins that were still there were gathered together at the opposite end of the table. As Rae passed them, one of them looked up and sneered at her. When she spoke, it was in an icy tone, as though Rae had just insulted her.

"That's right. Get your ugly Goth ass out of here," she drawled, emphasizing the first word. Rae didn't respond, but kept walking, expecting the girl to go back to her business after she passed. But the girl spoke again.

"Hello! Goth! I am talking to you!" she said louder. A few Hufflepuffs turned around. Rae kept walking, her temper not rising. The girl had said nothing that truly offended her - yet.

"Listen, mudblood. If you-"

There it was.

Rae, not turning around or changing her pace, lifted her free left hand and shot a bird straight into the air. She kept it up for a few seconds after she heard the girl gasp, and then lowered it. Turning right outside the hall, a crack could be heard, followed by inaudible muttering. By the sound of things, she had just been the target of a jinx gone awry. Rae grinned to herself.

If nothing else, Sirius and James had fun. At the Potter Manor, the snow had built up to at least twelve inches - quite a bit, considering they were several hundred miles south of Hogwarts' high altitude. The Manor was a modest three-story brick house that sat along beside a short stretch of precipice. In James' and Sirius' minds, it was the perfect place to practice their flying skills - and do some other things as well.

"JAMES!" Sirius was about to wet himself.

"Huh?" James called over his shoulder.

"Don't make me do this! PLEASE!" he whined.

James rolled his eyes. "Sirius, YOU were the one who volunteered to do this."

"But - but…" Words seemed to have failed him. There was no way in hell he was going to jump over that cliff. Muggles may have been stupid enough to do it, but not him.

James fastened his helmet and attached his harness to the small structure. His hands gripped the handlebars, and the squeak of leather gloves on leather covering broke through the high wind. Turning around, he grinned at Sirius, who backed up a few paces, and took a deep breath upon facing front. _Here goes nothing._

All expectations of taking a direct nosedive were eliminated. It was almost the sensation of flying - cold air blowing into your face, speeding high above the ground. The glider swerved to the left. Then to the right. James looked back at Sirius, and saw a look of horror on his face. He sighed. His dear friend did not like heights.

After ten minutes or so of hand gliding, James turned his craft around and headed towards the precipice, where he landed somewhat clumsily into a rather frantic Sirius. Both fell over, and Sirius hugged his friend.

"You're alive!" he almost whispered it. James struggled to untangle himself from the mass of glider and Sirius, the latter being a bit larger than himself.

"Sirius, let go…" he managed, finding it difficult to breathe. Sirius finally let his best friend go. James stood up, and unwrapped the rest of the glider from him and his harness. "Let's get inside, it's getting colder out here."

"Yeah, and I think it's starting to snow again," he said, blinking a fresh snowflake out of his eyes. Sirius seemed to have forgotten his mood of moments before. He reached over to James and smacked him across the top of the head.

"Ah- what the hell was that for?" he exclaimed reaching up to his head. Upon contact, he realized he still had his helmet on. "Oh… yeah, I forgot about that."

Sirius grinned at his friend.

--

Under a deep green cushion, on a deep green chair, there was cut a hole in the fabric. In the hole, there lay a simple notebook. The front and back covers were concealed with a lustrous tape-like foil. Several years had consumed the neat edges and straight-formed wire. They were now worn and battered. Shine no longer shone as before.

Yet, this notebook was much more important than any school book - any library book. Contained inside were entries from a quiet Slytherin girl - entries that could drive the social butterfly to madness, but form tears of joy in the eyes of the invisible souls. There were poems - oh, such dread-filled poems, they were - and stories - short stories of pain and anguish, of angst and death. This notebook she valued beyond all else.

But today - today she wouldn't write in it. Today she saw no reason to go back to the disgusted feeling of the early morning.

Today, she would visit Hogsmeade.

--

Thanks again, chicas!


	7. Dreams and Disappearances

**Chapter Six**

A bone-chilling gust cast itself along the rustic path that lay ahead of her. Rae pulled her cloak closer about her as she slid down the cold stone. A hard landing greeted her, and a dull thud echoed about the tunnel.

_When will I learn?_

Once again, Rae landed on her backside. She stood, once untangled from her cloak, and dusted off what she could see of herself before lighting her wand and beginning the walk. It would take quite a while to reach the other end of the passage, but it was well worth it. Wizarding chocolate was much better than Muggle chocolate.

Her mind gradually drifted from one thing to another. Chocolate was first on her mind, then came what kind of it she would try today; and then there was the question of how she was going to get from behind the counter without being seen. After all, this wasn't a time when the students would be out and about.

Perhaps luck would be on her side today. It had, after all, helped her out at breakfast.

Roots were showing all about the tunnel, mostly overhead. Dim wand light illuminated claw marks and gashes in the wall, as if a beast of some sort had been driven into a panic in the limited space. If an animal as large as the one that made them had once gotten in here, could more do the same? A bead of cold sweat began to run down the side of her face, and she was reminded of a dream.

_On the edge of the Forbidden Forest, she sat on a low hanging limb - the product of stunted growth and awkward weight balance. A golden-red sunset lay out in front of her, reflecting itself across the lake. She raised her gray eyes to gaze at it from her new Pink Floyd shirt. Something had moved to her left. Frozen, she caught her breath and listened - strained her ears, more like - for any more signs of movement._

_Lo and behold, a large black animal showed its face from around the underbrush. His teeth were pearly white - and big. Grinning at her, the beast began to move his head up and down, as if nodding to confirm her fears that she was his prey. Horror gripped her, and she wanted to look for a place to run to, but found she couldn't take her gaze from those black eyes and big teeth._

_The animal had not yet moved, but continued to grin at her - his grin was at first like a horrid laugh, but it had seemingly transformed into a snigger of malice. She pulled her legs up to her chest and began to whimper. Her eyes clenched themselves shut, forcing back the tears of fright - and then ending her dream._

When she awoke, she had found herself shaking and cold, and drenched in sweat on the couch of the Room of Requirement. Although this surprised her, it was not as strange as the feeling that a pair of eyes was on her. Perhaps it had only been aftershock of the dream. She had never really bothered to wander about it.

Ahead of her, a flight of steps began to appear in the wand light. Reality claimed her again, and she looked at the walls. There were no longer any gashes on the walls, nor were there scratch marks. A cloud of dust arose at her feet upon climbing the steps, and an even larger one appeared when she opened the trap door above her.

Rae held her breath and took a quick peek around before slipping up into the cellar of Honeydukes.

Albus Dumbledore was in quite a fret. Elsie Julienne had left for Christmas break, as had a few other teachers. Although, by this time, the rest of them had arrived back at the castle fully ready to regain control of their students. The Potions Mistress, however, had not returned. Nor had Dumbledore been able to make contact with her for quite a number of days - two weeks, to be exact.

He feared that she and her family had fallen victim to current dark activity. The final decision was to wait a few more hours for a reply, if none showed, then the call would go out for a new Potions Master at Hogwarts.

The snow, although stopping during the greater part of the night, had still managed to pile up into five-foot drifts against the castle walls. A distant line of smoke on the horizon crawled closer every moment. The Hogwarts Express would be there soon.

In the mean time, the castle was left to enjoy the last leisurely hours before classes the next day. A harsh wind blew from the west, and the clouds began to visibly thin out. A crack of blue shone. Then a gap. Half the sky was now bared. Icy wind moved the rest of the clouds aside and let the remaining evening sunlight penetrate. A brilliant reflection of the reddening sky crept over the lake. To the east, blue darkened to a royal color, and turned purple with the red of the west.

The first day back happened as all first days do. Sitting still during class, for instance, was a near impossibility. Double classes were terrible on the students as well as the teacher forced to keep them for ninety minutes.

But of all the students, the seventh years came back, perhaps, worst of all. To some of the sixth years, it was mealtime entertainment to watch the frantic seventh years putting in extra practice wherever they had a moment to spare. Occasionally, they were in such a hurry that complete concentration could not be achieved - this usually resulted in explosions and the showering of sparks upon unsuspecting bystanders.

On the train ride back, James had been deep in conversation with Remus, and was now confident that he had figured out why Lily Evans despised him so. Maybe now he could increase his chances of gaining her acceptance. Remus figured that it had something to do with his 'fun' - defined as sending hexes down a crowded corridor and hitting the target dead on - the target usually being Severus Snape, or another of his fellow Slytherins.

Peter could not, for the life of him, figure out why James was so interested in her - a mudblood. There were scores of other girls in the castle - other pureblooded girls. Evans was such a goody-goody. It just wouldn't do to have his best friend and master prankster in league with the girl who was first in line for the female head student position at Hogwarts.

A trail of red hair came to her lower back, and was kept tucked away behind her ears. Large almond shaped, emerald eyes shone out from behind a thin outline of black eyewear. Few intruders were allowed to see what lay behind them.

Good grades came naturally to her, even though she was the first in the family to be accepted into a magical school such as Hogwarts. Charms were her specialty. She had achieved an 'O' in the previous year's O.W.L. test. History of Magic, however, was another story. As much as she tried to focus herself, she found it nearly impossible, especially with those audacious four that never seemed to do their work, yet always passed in flying colors behind her.

Lily Evans dearly despised James Potter. Yet, it still seemed to be his goal in life to either humiliate her or sweet-talk her into a date. The latter had been more popular as of late. During classes, his eyes often traveled in her direction. She tried not to look back at him, fearing to get his hopes up. It always seemed to fail.

Professor Binns, ghost though he may have been, was still the most boring person, alive or dead, within the walls of Hogwarts. Rumor had it that he never even changed his lesson plans from year to year. The same notes were read to different students each year. In James's opinion, whoever the moron was that first noticed this, must have had a lot of time on his hands.

Remus's quill scratched occasionally across a bit of parchment to record anything that seemed important enough to consider fair game for an upcoming test. James, Sirius, and Peter sat playing with a folded up triangle of paper. One would give it a flick and send it flying into another's outstretched fingers. It was quite amusing when it struck Olivia Carmen's ear, but her reaction wasn't.

She swiveled around in her seat, deep brown eyes searching the room for the source of her infliction. They came to rest on Sirius Black. His eyes gave it all away - even if he wasn't looking directly at her. James was looking rather guilty himself. His ears seemed to be turning pink as, she guessed, he tried not to laugh. Olivia narrowed her eyes into a threatening glare before turning back around to face the front of the room. She leaned to the left and put her mouth close to her best friend's ear.

"It's _them _again," she said in a whisper.

Lily rolled her eyes. She wondered if it had been James trying to get her attention. It wouldn't be unlike him to do so.

"Potter or Black?" she replied.

"I think it was Black. Potter looked ready to laugh, though."

"Could have been either one."

Olivia nodded in response. She reached up and pulled her dark brown hair around to the right. Her fingers wound themselves into the mass and began to pull out stray knots that had formed throughout the day. The natural waves soon began to loosen themselves out.

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I kinda got sidetracked arguing with MuggleNet about my fic (they said it was too out-of-canon) and I forgot to update. But I made the chappie nice and lengthy. So please review! Thanks!


	8. The Winds of Sympathy

**Chapter Seven**

Royal blue gave way to an eerie gray, and distant thunder rumbled across the forbidden forest. A frosty wind howled through the cracks of the school walls, chilling every room and corridor. It seemed to have gotten colder of late, if that was possible. Small drops of water began to land themselves upon the windows. First grew the drops – large and powerful – and then came the higher winds – roaring fast and suddenly.

"What?" Rae's voice was rather sudden and extremely crisp for it to be so early in the morning. She had sat bolt upright at a sudden icy draft around her neck. The reason for her choice of words was debatable.

Somewhere to her left there was a whistling coming from right around the windowpane. Rae watched the center, where the two sides came together, as they slowly wedged themselves inward. Her attention was drifting, and her eyelids had begun to droop when they burst open. Freezing cold air wove itself around Rae and her roommates.

"Holy shit!"

Her voice was not the only to be heard. Two screams and a string of curses came from the remaining beds, whose curtains had been blown open in the heavy draft. Rae leapt from her bed and hastily closed the shutters, muttering the sealing spell as she went.

"Damn it, Orion! Close the bloody window!"

Rae turned around to see whom the voice belonged to. A girl with white blonde hair and, now, flushed cheeks was stepping out of her bed. She was slightly taller than Rae, and her blue eyes shone out like specks of glittery ice against her pale skin. When she spoke, her voice hat brought back instant memories from the first day of Christmas break. It was cold – like her eyes.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" she yelled, stopping a mere foot away from Rae. "Do you have _any_ idea what time it is?"

Rae shut her eyes and brought her fingers up to massage her temples. The blood pounded in her ears, like the girl's voice. It was very irritating.

"You think _I_ opened the window?" A sigh escaped her lips. The girl, apparently, took this as an accusation of her intelligence level.

"Do I look stupid to you?"

Rae answered her privately.

"If I look stupid, by all means, tell me!"

At this, Rae had to hold her breath to keep herself from laughing in the girl's face. "No, no. That's not what I mean. I did _not_ open that window. It was the wind – it was blowing so hard that-"

"The _wind_. Right. As if I'm going to believe that the _wind_ blew open that window." She scoffed. A roll of the eyes signaled her retirement from fighting. The girl walked towards the dormitory bathroom.

"Bye, Denise!" Rae called, mockingly, as the girl slammed the door behind her.

Wishing beyond hope that she had some form of Muggle medication with her, Rae massaged her temples yet again. Madame Pomfrey had said there was nothing she could do about it. It was just her sinuses fluctuating in the weather. She groaned and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. Potions next.

The school had recently been informed of the Potions teacher predicament. Dumbledore had taught the class for the past three days, and Rae looked forward to having him teach a class. He was most always smiling about something. His silver beard caught softly in the light and twinkled. Numerous lines and wrinkles creased his face, but they didn't necessarily make him an old man. Sky blue eyes brought out the youth in him. He was like the grandfather she never had.

A quick glance at her watch told her it was time to head in that direction. She saw the Marauders standing up from the Gryffindor table and rolled her eyes, but immediately regretted it. Her head pounded worse. She sped up going down the stairs, hoping to avoid any contact with them.

A few Slytherins were already standing around the dungeon door. They paid her no mind as she approached them. Denise looked up and sneered at her, but said nothing. She had stopped a few paces away from them in hopes that nobody would speak to her. So far, so good. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Dumbledore was on his way yet. When she left the table, he had still been up there. James Potter's voice, however, was heard before he was seen. Telling another of his jokes, no doubt.

Rae turned her head at a clap of thunder. The morning's storm was just now getting started. White light flashed across the hall from the high window above. She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her raven hair. Her eyes were shut, momentarily, but when they opened, they were under siege.

"Orion!" A familiar voice called her name. She turned towards the dungeon door. Denise stood there with the other girls in their dormitory gathered around her. "Tell us again – why are you in Slytherin?"

Rae sighed and shook her head lightly. "It's a family secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Sarcasm practically dripped from every word.

"Ha! What family? I heard you were raised by some Muggle man." Denise's hands fluttered up to give emphasis to the word 'Muggle'.

Rae's eyes stung. Her voice began to shake. "He's not _'some Muggle man.'_ For your so wonderfully gathered information, he's my father!"

Denise narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest, her voice becoming dangerous "Don't talk to me like that, mudblood. Have you no respect for the higher society?"

"Higher society my ass, Malfoy." A male voice said from behind Rae. "Can't you shut your arrogant mouth for a minute?"

Rae turned around to see who had spoken. To her surprise, Sirius Black had come loose from his three friends, who normally seemed medically inseparable.

Denise smiled mischievously at him, apparently thinking this was just another of the Marauders plans to ruin other people's lives. "Sirius," she said slowly. "Why-"

"Black, I don't need you sticking up for me! I can handle this myself!" Rae said, turning around to face him.

"But she called you-"

"Just step off, this isn't your argument." She said, raising her voice for the first time. Sirius looked taken aback. He had only been trying to help her.

"I was just-"

"What? You think you can handle me?" Denise's voice was back.

Rae emitted a low growling noise as she faced the girl again. Every word was loud, and pronounced slowly and clearly. "Fuck off, bitch. I will deal with you later."

Denise Malfoy opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. Instead she turned on her heel with her friends and walked into the classroom. Behind her were most of the Gryffindors, hoping not to be late for class.

Rae glared after Denise for a moment before Sirius spoke again. He looked upon her with what she took to be pity.

"Rae, I was just trying to help you."

"Well…" She blinked hard, trying to keep the tears back. She read the pity in his eyes. "Who said I needed your help? I was doing fine until you came along!"

"No, you weren't. She was walking all over you before-"

"Save it, Black!" Rae's voice rose in volume. The bell drowned the rest of what she had to say.

Sirius jumped and looked around him. The tail ends of Peter's robes were disappearing into the classroom. "Oh, great. Now we're late."

"There's no 'we' about it." Rae mumbled, hurrying into the classroom. Sirius was on her heels.

Well... I apologize for the long wait, my dears. I've been through quite an ordeal with this god-forsaken story. Don't worry - I'm not abandoning it. You see, my grandma's laptop deleted the story from my disk. It upset me, needless to say. I'm just glad that I wasn't so far ahead that it would seriously screw with my plans. Only two scenes were lost - the rest of it I was able to find in archives online and save to disk. I'm trying to look at it in a positive light - the higher beings didn't like it and said "You can do better than that" and -BAM! -in a flash of light and a blink of the computer screen, it was gone. So... Yeah... Nothing else has changed - I still appreciate reviews and I'm still going to thank those of you who actually took the time to review. It warms my stone-cold heart to see people that actually CARE about my story. sniff sniff


	9. Dr Jackyl Has Entered the Building

**Chapter Eight**

Rae immediately started to the back of the room, but stopped when she saw that it wasn't Dumbledore who was wiping chalk dust from his fingers. The young man didn't seem to have passed thirty, and looked around at her, his blue eyes seeming to burn into hers. He smiled, but it wasn't the kind that you wanted from a teacher on the first day in their class. Breaking eye contact, she glanced in Sirius's direction. He, too, hadn't moved any from where he entered.

"Tardiness will not be tolerated in my class." His voice was of a dark sort. Quiet; almost menacing. His eyes seemed to have followed Rae's, for now Sirius was on the receiving end of that intense gaze.

"I don't believe I know your names," he said, changing the subject.

Rae was quite aware that he was looking at her, as were the rest of the class. Her ears were burning, as she felt her cheeks would be doing soon. She swallowed a bout of saliva. "Orion. Rae Orion."

"Very well, Miss Orion." He turned to Sirius, and Rae took her chance to sit down while he wasn't looking at her.

"Did I say you could sit down yet, Miss Orion?" He was looking at her again. She was growing, by the second, to despise the way he looked at her.

Rae stood up again, in the process catching a malicious grin from Denise.

"Answer me, Miss Orion." He seemed to taunt her.

"No." She said it barely above a whisper.

"No, what?" He egged her on. Rae's temper began to rise again.

"No, Professor." She shut her eyes, and opened them, glancing upwards. Blood pounded inside her head, and somehow increased the tension of the situation.

"Good, girl." He almost seemed to sneer. Maybe it was just inside her head.

"Now – your name would be?" It was Sirius's turn.

"Sirius Black."

Black eyes locked onto blue. Fearless. The tactic was simple – make _him_ look away first. He did.

"Miss Orion and Mr. Black. The two of you will receive a detention for being late to my class."

"Detention?" Rae looked at him. "With _Black?_"

"Yes."

Disgust filled her as she looked at him. Who had Black been calling arrogant? _He_ was the arrogant one, always strutting about with his little group like he owned the place. _Purebloods,_ she thought. _They're all the same._

Sirius stole a glance at Rae. Her features were not at all peaceful. They were stressed – possibly with the situation at hand. He wasn't. Detention was nothing to him anymore. In the beginning, sure – but not these days. He, although followed closely by James, held the school record for most detentions.

"I want both of you back here at nine o'clock, tomorrow night." The man looked back to Rae from Sirius. "Is that understood?"

They each nodded before sitting down.

"Now," he said, addressing the entire class. "My name is Blaise Jackyl. You will address me as Professor Jackyl. Since your last Potions teacher has, er, gone missing, Professor Dumbledore has asked that I replace her for the remainder of the year."

Sirius had been scribbling on a piece of paper slowly, trying not to draw attention with the scratching of his quill. He blew lightly on the paper to dry the ink before crumpling it up and passing it to Peter, who passed it to James, who smoothed it out on his lap so as to read it.

_This is really going to mess with our plans for Friday night. Shall we move them to Saturday night, or just early that morning?_

James pulled out his own quill and penned a response beneath the question.

_I guess that depends on what this guy is going to have you do. If it's going to tire you out too bad, maybe we should wait until Saturday night._

James, too, blew on the ink and crumpled it up before passing it through Peter to get to Sirius. He looked up at their new professor, who's speech appeared to be over. Hopefully, this guy wouldn't have Sirius doing anything too strenuous. He would need his strength for the prank they had planned for late Friday night.

Lily was looking at the new professor with doubt. His looks had quite a bit going for him. Thick platinum hair brushed his shoulders, and fierce blue eyes gazed out at the class before him. His complexion reminded her of the Slytherin, Denise Malfoy. Lily pulled her eyes from his pale skin, and over to Olivia. Only then did she realize how very dark skinned her best friend was.

Olivia raised herself from her stretched out position across the desk to look at Lily. Determining her expression was rather difficult. Olivia hid her emotions well when other people were around her. Only from experience could Lily even begin to decode it. _Pity._

After a moment of staring at each other, the red head and the brunette turned back to the front of the class, the better to hear what the new professor was saying.

_Pity,_ she thought. _Yeah, I pity him for being related to that wench._

The class seemed to pass with extreme sluggishness. About two rolls of parchment's worth of notes were taken, most of them on how one's behavior reflected their grades and the like. When the bell rang, Olivia had trouble containing her joy as she and Lily exited the dungeon.

"Thank you, God!" she yelled upon contact with the stairs. "I thought we'd be trapped in Satan's Lair forever!"

Lily laughed and gave her overexcited friend a high-five. "Seriously! Did that guy talk enough? I mean – I think we already knew just about everything we wrote down-"

"You mean you actually wrote down all of it?" Olivia dropped back down, somewhat, to her normal self.

"Didn't you?" Lily's spirit deflated slightly.

"Of course not. It's not like he's going to check it or anything," she shrugged.

"Olivia! You slept through the last twenty minutes of class! How would you know?"

Olivia looked at her skeptically. "Are you trying to put me on a guilt trip?"

Lily widened her eyes, pretending to be offended. "What? Me? Put _you_ on a guilt trip?"

Olivia just looked at her, obviously reading everything in Lily's over expressive emerald eyes.

"Okay – fine. You caught me." Lily rolled her eyes, but a grin crept onto her face. Olivia grinned back and burst out laughing, as did her friend.

A/N: Terribly sorry for the wait, dears! That is, the few of you who actually seem to care (coughVanessacoughMelissacough). Many troubles with the computers, but don't worry. I'll try not to be so long next time.


	10. Revenge! With a Side of Feathers

**Chapter Nine**

Several hours later, Rae sat on her bed, curtains drawn, and legs folded. Her stomach growled almost angrily at her decision to skip another meal. She pulled her wand from her sleeve and lit the tip of it.

"Lumos," she whispered.

Rae pulled up her other sleeve to see her watch. It was now a quarter past eleven. Shocked, she did the math, and realized she had been sitting there four hours.

The common room was empty at six, so she stayed there until seven doing her homework. When the rest of the house came back from dinner, she retired to her dorm. There, she did the rest of her homework. While writing a charm's essay, the door opened, and in walked four female voices chattering sleepily. Rae paused her quill, not wanting to draw attention to her bed. When the voices died down, and bed hangings were heard shutting, she continued softly as she dared.

Now, she was sure they were asleep.

Rae crept from her bed, not even opening the curtains, and tip-toed to the bed she knew to be Denise Malfoy's. At the foot stood an open trunk. She picked up the clean set of school clothes that lay across the opening, and held her wand in her teeth as she pulled a small pair of scissors from her pocket.

As she pulled the clothing tight in her hands, she located one of the main seems of the shirt. Taking her scissors up, Rae clipped the thread holding it together in several different places. Denise always wore her clothing fairly snug against her skin; now they would pull apart in no time.

Gently folding the shirt and laying it back in it's place, Rae slipped the scissors into her pocket and crawled back into her own four-poster bed.

As morning dawned for the marauders, Remus was the first to sit up. He rubbed the bite marks on his arms. They still hadn't fully healed over from a few weeks ago.

Next was Peter. He looked around groggily and rolled over; unfortunately, he was already quite as close to the edge of the bed as he could get.

The 'thump' made one of the remaining two reluctantly open his eyes.

Sirius sat up, blinking into the early morning light, and then caught sight of Peter rolled up in several blankets on the floor. It rather resembled a cocoon…. He gave a drunken sort of half giggle, trailing off in a bored voice before looking across the room towards James's bed.

Still asleep.

Sirius picked up a pillow and tossed it through the opening in the hangings. Still no movement from within.

Remus watched Sirius pick up an even larger pillow to awaken James with. The aim was so terrible that it went left and knocked into Peter, instead.

He merely grumbled something about ice cream and rolled over again, apparently not caring that he was now in the middle of the floor.

This time, Remus took pity on their shortest friend and went over to drag him from his nest, while Sirius staggered over to James, poking him in the ribs with his index finger.

Nothing.

Sirius poked him in the stomach.

James groaned softly, then rolled over to protect his sensitive abdomen.

"Prongs-" Remus began. Sirius cut him off with a shushing sound.

"I have an idea," he breathed. Remus rolled his eyes; he could already see the wheels turning in Sirius's head.

He fully opened the hangings on James's bed, and then began to back up. Once at his own bed, he took a running start towards James, lunging onto his bed, full force.

Unfortunately, he also landed on his friend.

"PADFOOT!" James's voice echoed in the dorm room before his eyes were even open.

Sirius grinned. "How'd you guess?"

James didn't answer, but shoved Sirius off of him and his bed, then stood up, grabbing a pillow as he went. WHACK! Feathers flew everywhere as Sirius received the beating of a lifetime.

A/N: Yeah... Forgive me for the wait. I kinda forgot about this place... oops. Anywho, a big thank you to Melissa for reminding me to update. I actually combined two separate chapters to make one SUPER chapter... that is still incredibly short. But it's a chapter, so you guys should be proud of me! Oh, and as for where I actually am in writing the story, I had this horrible case of Writer's Block, and I tried for at least three weeks to think of something to fill in the gap between what had already happened and what needed to happen. And about ten minutes ago, I closed that gap. I had just finished watching The Crow, and it hit me like BAM! So I started talking to myself (thank God nobody else was home) and planning the next chapter out. It was great! Yeah. Okay. I'll shut up now. Remember to review, my lovelies!


	11. God Bless Levi Strauss

**Chapter Ten**

Rae opened her eyes, squinting through the darkness. She pulled her hangings to the side and gazed through the small window across from her. Sitting up and yawning, she glanced at her watch. The little dial that spun the date read the letter 'F'. Friday. There was something important about friday.

A test, perhaps?

No...

_I want both of you back here at nine tomorrow night..._

There it was. A detention from that new Potions teacher.

And she was to serve it with that annoying pureblood, too.

Beautiful.

She got up and groped around her trunk for some clean clothes. A pair of small scissors fell out of her pocket as she bent over. A grin spread across her face, as she remembered the _snipping_ she had done to Denise's clothing the night before. Speaking of which - the she-demon was still asleep.

Better to hurry up and avoid conversation - or conviction - at all costs. Rae pulled a pair of old ragged jeans out of her trunk and tugged them on, fastening the loose button.

"God bless Levi Strauss, whoever he is," she whispered to herself.

These jeans were her mother's. Surprisingly, the smaller belled bottom was still stylish. With rips, tears, and holes in the knees, they were easily the most comfortable pair she owned. Something told her that today, she would need her mother's spirit near to her, more so than usual. There were a few patches across and around the back pockets. One of them read 'Sex Pistols' - her mother had been getting into them right before she died. Sarah Orion had never failed to amaze a single soul that knew her.

Rae grabbed a shirt, not bothering to see which one it was, and pulled it over her head. Fine for today. She picked up her trench coat and bag, then walked out of the dormitory. The stairwell was silent, for the most part. The fire crackled from above, and two young voices carried down the stone, walls. Rae saw that they were only first years, and so she paid them no mind. They were silent as she walked past. Perhaps they were afraid of her. _Good._

Later that day, when the lunch bell rang, the majority of the student body made their way to the Great Hall. At the Gryffindor table, Sirius found a fellow sixth year and took a seat next to her while he waited on James to come down from the Divination classroom. She looked up from the book she was reading ("Modern Astrological Myths: 1976"), and stared into his dark eyes with her jade green ones.

"What's her name?"

"Hold on a sec-"

"Just tell me what her name is-"

"Who said it was a-"

"Okay, what's _his_ name?"

"Bree!"

"Yes?" She smirked.

Sirius looked at her, pleadingly.

Bree rolled her eyes and pulled her thick blonde hair around to one side of her head. "So. Talk."

He sighed, closing his eyes and running his hands through his shaggy black hair. "I have a detention tonight with this girl." Sirius stopped, half expecting Bree to cut him off, asking for her name again. She stayed silent, gazing at him and braiding her hair absently.

Sirius continued. "Her name is Rae. And she seems to have it in her head that all purebloods are snotty, stuck up-"

"Basically, you mean people like that Denise Malfoy chick."

"Right."

"And you want to convince her that you are not in the same ball-park as the Malfoys."

"Yes. Can you help me?"

"For a price."

"How - wait!" He stopped in midsentence. "Since when does giving advice to a friend require payment?"

Bree laughed at him. "It was a joke, Sirius! Chill out!"

"Oh." He looked a bit confused.

The blonde reached over and smacked him across the top of his head.

"Hey!" He choked out, laughing. His features smoothed over, again. "So, what do I have to do?"

Bree smiled at him and said, simply, "Just show her the real you."

"What do you mean, 'the real me'?" he said slowly, cocking his head to one side.

"This. Show her _this_." She waved her wand, summoning a mirror from her bag and holding it in front of Sirius. "You're so adorable when you're not trying to be cute! Don't try to be smart or funny. In fact, don't try to be anything that you're not."

"Are you implying that I'm not-"

"You know what I mean!"

"No, I don't think I do," he mocked.

"Can't you be serious, for once?" She sighed.

"I'm always Sirius, love!" He flashed her a dazzling smile, to which she really couldn't help but smile back at.

"Gah!" She laughed, then smacked him over the had again. "Wake up, genius! Be Sirius in _both_ senses!"

Sirius was silent for a moment. "Do you really think I'm adorable?"

"No."

"You're so blunt."

"The truth hurts."

"Ouch."

"That was a joke."

"Oh."

"Listen." She paused. "Just be yourself. Take down all that elaborate shit that you put up around yourself. Let her see who you really are."

"How?"

"Talk to her."

"About myself?"

"Yes."

"Doesn't that seem a bit... egotistical?"

"Well..." She thought for a moment. "Okay, I know you don't have the best conversational skills when it comes to being... open."

The final word had been decided on after recieving a warning look from Sirius. Bree knew him as well as James did, meaning she also knew that he was awkward when it came to talking about himself. But, despite the look he was giving her, she stared right back at him, unfazed. Bree knew to look beyond his outter shell. Inside, she knew that Sirius was a very passionate individual. Yet, she seemed to be one of the few who were in on the little secret.

"But if at first you don't succeed, try; try again."

"Er... right."


	12. Only Fools Are Positive

**Chapter Eleven**

Suddenly, an arm draped around Sirius's neck, and James Potter's head leaned into his best friend's ear, a grin upon his face.

"Good one, Padfoot!"

"Good one - what?" Sirius's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"The Malfoy girl! Her clothes have _massive_ holes in them!" he pressed.

"Why?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Black. _You_ charmed her shirt to split, didn't you?"

"I haven't even had a class with her today."

"You can't be serious?" James looked a bit put out.

"I'm always Sirius, James!" he joked, slapping his friend on the back.

"But... if you didn't..."

Bree was stretching upwards in her seat, head craned in the direction of the Slytherin table. She saw that Denise Malfoy was talking with a girl beside her as if all were well in the world and there wasn't an oblong-shaped hole along the seem that ran below her right arm. Sirius followed her gaze and saw this as well.

"Sirius!" she said.

"I didn't do that!" he said forcefully.

"Are you positive?"

"Yes."

"Only fools are positive."

"Sirius _is_ a fool, Bree." James interjected.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed. "Who are you to call _me_ a-"

"I mean," James continued, ignoring his best friend, "just look at this hair-" James stood up and ran his hands through Sirius's longer than usual locks. "The four-inch-long hair of a fool!"

Sirius smacked James's hand away, grinning.

"Okay, we have made known the fact that I am, indeed, a fool," he mocked. "So who did that to her shirt?"

"Hm," James considered for a moment. Then the grin of all-knowing evil spread across his face. "Padfoot! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That if that hole gets any bigger, it'll be like a strip tease?" Bree asked.

"Well, that, too," James adimitted. "But - I don't think she realizes that she has a hole, yet. Sirius, if you were the one to break it to her..."

"She'd be embarrased as all hell." Sirius finished, grinning as he caught on. "Now?"

"Forward, march!"

Sirius got up and shook his hair back, making it fall elegantly across his eyes, before strolling, casually, off to Denise's seat. James sat down next to Bree, both of them sniggering.

"This'll be good."

"Damn straight." Bree grinned.

Denise turned around as Sirius approached her. She moved over a bit and patted the seat next to her. Sirius held up a hand, clearly refusing the offer. He shook his head in a flirtacious fashion, rearranging his hair again. Denise looked ready to melt. Sirius's mouth moved, and as it did, Denise's expression changed from dreamy to horrified. She jumped up and ran out of the Great Hall. Sirius turned to look at James and Bree, giving them the thumbs up and a grin.

"Beautiful!" Bree whispered, slightly hysterical.

"That one was a ten, most deffinately!" James cackled.

Sirius walked, leisurely, back to the Gryffindor table, a satisfied look on his face.

"That made my day, that it did." He said jovially.

The sun went down early that night, and an icy breeze chilled the necks of the unprotected students as they ran for their dormitories. James, Remus, and Peter parted with Sirius at the bottom of the first staircase, reminding him that the plan to jinx the benches in the Great Hall would go on without him.

"Don't worry about it, Padfoot," James said. "It's not like we'll never pull anything in the middle of the night again."

"I know, but it feels like we're breaking tradition, somehow," Sirius muttered. He cleared his throat and spoke louder. "I have no doubt that you three are perfectly capable of this bewitchment without me."

Remus smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, then said something that rather surprised him. "If at first you don't succeed, try; try again."

Peter nodded beside him, and James winked. Remus turned to the stairs and began the ascent, waving an arm for the other two to hurry up.

Sirius stood there gaping slightly before he mentally shook himself and started down to the dungeons. How did Remus know what Bree had told him? Then he kicked himself. Well, of course - Bree and Remus were dating. He would obviously know about it. But that was a private conversation between he and his confident! Anger towards Bree came forth. No, she wasn't the one to blame. It was a casual conversation. Maybe Remus had told Bree to interrogate him. Or maybe...

"You should watch where you're walking."

The voice came out of nowhere, as did the wall.

"Christ!" Sirius clutched his forehead and leaned against the wall he had just walked into.

"What? Can't take a warning?" The voice said again.

Sirus's doubled vision slowly shrank back down to singled. He removed his hand from his head and saw Rae standing a little behind him in the hallway. She came up to him and moved his bangs to the side, inspecting the coloring patch on his forehead.

_Her hands are so cold._

"You'll live." As quickly as her hand had come, it was gone. She backed up a pace and shoved her hands into her pockets, shyly. "I, uh - I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I didn't mean to be so short with you."

"Don't worry about it. I - I enjoyed it, actually." A bit of a grin began to show itself. "Truth is, anything that can be done to piss that - girl - off, well..."

"You don't like her, do you?"

He shook his head. "Not in the slightest." He paused and thought about what Bree had said. "She gives a bad name to the rest of us."

"The 'rest of us'...?" Rae's brow wrinkled.

"Purebloods," he clarified. "She thinks that they - that _we_ are better than the rest."

"Oh." She grew quiet and checked her watch. "We should get to that detention..."

"Oh, right."

The pair walked down the hall in silence. Sirius began to fret. _What if that was the wrong thing to say? What if it made her think that I consider myself a pureblood? Well, I am a pureblood. But you didn't have to put it like that! She probably hates me. If she hates you then why did she check your forehead? It's better than checking my forearm, I guess._

A/N: Okay... Kitsune reminded me to update. Again. Cause I'm a lazy bum and I forget these things. Soooo... you should all review, because you love me! Oh... and while I'm here, SOMEONE needs to update _An Impassive Appearance_. --cough cough--


	13. Sixth Sense? Bad Aura

**Chapter Twelve**

-

--

---

Mr. Black grunted at the new burn marks on the forearm of his youngest son. The skin was still inflamed and the scab was just starting to overtake the wound. Regulus smiled proudly at his father as he now concealed the Dark Mark.

"Regulus," he started, "Are you _sure_ about this?"

"Yes, father. I am prepared to serve Lord Voldemort."

"But are you willing?" His father looked a bit skeptical in the firelight of their darkened kitchen.

"Of course, father!" Regulus's young and innocent face was set, but naive.

"Regulus, my son," he said softly. "I want you to grow up and be a proud man with a pure family. But I mostly want to see you grow up. You could easily be killed in this line of servitude."

"I know." His determination seemed to falter a bit. "But I must! Lord Voldemort is right. We are being overrun by these mudbloods and muggle-lovers. I don't want my children to grow up in the company of such filth."

Mr. Black's eyes darkened at this statement, and for a wild moment he wanted to yell at his son - to _scream_ at him. But he said nothing. He didn't tell his son how wrong these ideals were. He didn't express his great concern over his choice of actions.

Instead, Regulus turned to leave. Mr. Black lingered only long enough to glance into the gap in the door to the pantry with a sorrowful eye.

Inside the pantry, behind the door ajar, Sirius stood with baited breath. _Mr. Black knew he was there. _His father was dying, he knew, and to learn of his youngest son becoming a Death Eater at the tender age of fourteen probably wasn't on his 'To Do' list in his remaining months. He sighed to himself and turned back to stashing snack foods in his bag to take to his room. Sirius knew that he would need to leave this house soon. His only problem was _how_ to get where he was going. The Potter's manor, after all, was quite a ways out of London.

---

--

-

They reached the dungeon doorway and glanced at each other. Sirius took the lead. He knocked. A voice beckoned them into the room. Rae hesitated. As she made eye contact with Professor Jackyl, a chill struck her. It was almost a sense of foreboding.

"Rae?" Sirius's voice broke through her haze. "Are you coming?"

She blinked and replied, "Oh, yeah..." She entered the room, keeping slightly behind Sirius as the professor spoke to them.

"Good evening, Miss Orion; Mr. Black." His shallow eyes gleamed with the cold of the dungeon; one might say that it reflected his personality.

"Evening, sir," said Sirius.

Rae avoided his eyes as she mumbled a greeting. She shifted uncomfortably, folding her arms across her stomach.

"For your detention tonight, you will be cleaning cauldrons." He waved his wand and a large closet opened, revealing several dozen of the pewter pots. "You are allowed to use magic."

Rae and Sirius nodded.

"You may leave when you are finished, but see me before you go. Now get started."

He turned away and walked to his desk at the front of the room where he sat down. Sirius and Rae walked to the closet and each pulled out a cauldron. Rae's nose wrinkled. "These things smell horrible!"

"Yes, I know," Jackyl replied, sifting through some papers. "It seems that the last potions teacher didn't keep very much order."

"Julienne was always a bit scatterbrained, wasn't she?" Sirius muttered. Rae giggled a bit in agreement.

"And the last memory she had of our class was when you... when you saw that fly that nobody else could see." Rae finished, casting a quick sideways glance at him. She blushed slightly, accidentally catching his eye. A flash of laughter, mixed with embarrassment, danced across his face. She remembered exactly what had happened on the last day that Madame Julienne had taught their potions class. Sirius had been watching her. When she felt his eyes on her, she had looked up and locked into them. They were so deep...

_"Evanescence!" _Sirius said loudly. He blinked at the dirty cauldron before him. "I'll murder Remus. He said this was the perfect charm for cleaning!"

"It is. But it only works when you say it right." Rae smirked. She raised her wand and said, _"Evanesco!" _

"Nicely done, Miss Orion." Sirius mocked, careful to keep his voice down so that the teacher whom he was impersonating wouldn't hear him.

"That's just creepy." She shuddered and then looked over her shoulder. Jackyl was walking towards them. Her eyes widened as she whipped her head back around. "He's coming," she mouthed to Sirius, jabbing him in the side to get his attention.

They heard a door open, then shut. Sirius turned around and looked. "He's in his office."

Rae let out a whistle. "Good. I thought he was coming after us."

"Yeah. Since he's gone for now-" Sirius dropped his voice down lower than usual "-do you get a bad feeling when you're around that guy, by chance?"

"Yes. I do," she said after a pause. "I felt it the first day. Something about him scared me - I mean, _really_ freaked me out."

"I know what you mean." He thought a moment. "It's like the room gets colder when he walks in."

She froze. "That's it. He has a bad aura, and - and a lot of negative energy." She put her free hand to her temple. Sirius looked at her, his brow wrinkled in question.

"Err, bad aura? You sound like Bree," he chuckled. "Is that what we feel around him? His aura?"

"Yes," she said, then paused. "What do you see when you look at him? I mean, besides his physical appearance."

Sirius set down a clean cauldron and picked up another, examining it and frowning. "Now that you mention it, there is something different about him. He - he glows, but it's like a deep shade of gray. Almost black."

Rae watched him as he spoke, studying his own growing purple emission. "And what do you see when you look at me?"

"A beautiful girl," he smiled. She sighed.

"No, what do you _see_?"

"Red. Deep red." He looked at her thoughtfully, as if for the first time.

"Sirius," she started.

_Say my name again_, he pleaded inwardly.

"You have a sixth sense," she finished.

"I have a what?" He stared at her.

"You don't know what a sixth sense is?" She regarded him with incredulity.

Sirius shook his head, his eyes inquiring.

"The red you see around me and the dark gray you see around Jackyl are auras. Most people can barely sense them. You have a sixth sense, meaning that you can actually _see_ them," she explained calmly.

"Wow." Sirius hesitated, wanting to ask her more, but not sure if he should. After all, he was trying to impress her. No. He wasn't supposed to impress anyone. He was supposed to be himself - and the self of Sirius Black was an inquisitive one. "So... do you have one, too? A sixth sense, I mean."

Rae nodded. "It's not as strong as yours, though. But I've been trying to improve it lately."

"Improve it? How can you improve a sixth sense?" He really was confused this time.

"Meditation helps a lot, but I'm not very good at that. I don't have a short attention span or anything, it's just that I can never fully clear my mind." She shrugged it off and picked up an exceptionally heavy cauldron, nearly dropping it. As she caught herself, a small furry object scurried out of the pewter pot and up her arm. Rae screamed and jumped backward, dropping the cauldron like it was on fire.

"Rae?" Sirius turned around just in time to catch the falling object before it hit the ground, preventing breakage. The mouse that had jumped out of the cauldron ran, squeaking, across the room to hide in the other closet. He set the cauldron down, smirking as he caught sight of Rae, tangled on the floor in the tail of her own coat.

"Are you okay?" Sirius wandered for a moment if he should help her up, then remembered the last attempt he had made at helping her. He winced inwardly and decided that she was a big girl and could get up herself.

"Black, it had better be that mouse you're laughing at," she warned, glaring at him softly.

"But, of course!" He grinned widely, taking a sweeping bow before her. As she positioned herself to stand up, her foot caught on her long jacket and she tripped. The coattail wrapped around her and she started to fall a second time, but never made it all the way down. Sirius had caught her under the arms. Then a voice spoke from their left, making him jump and nearly drop her.

"Is everything alright in here?" Professor Jackyl's head was protruding from his opened office door. He had undoubtedly heard Rae's scream.

"Yes, sir," Sirius answered briskly. "She just tripped, that's all." He pulled her up in one swift motion, purposely demonstrating his strength (courtesy of Quidditch) to his audience of two.

Rae's heart jumped, and she realized the full strength of her classmate.

Jackyl seemed unfazed by this act. Instead, he was studying the markings on Rae's lower back that had been exposed. Was that what he thought it was? He blinked, suddenly remembering that he was gawking at two of his students. After a mental slap he cleared his throat. "Back to work." He retreated into his office once more.

Sirius looked from the door to Rae and back again. "Is it me, or was he looking at you funny?"

"It did seem so," she said quietly. There was something about the way she spoke that suggested a perturbance. Her hand crept to her back and touched the mark with which she was emblazoned. Had he seen it?


	14. I'll Walk With You, If You Like

**Chapter Thirteen**

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A stormy ocean stared at Rae from across the way - two of them, in fact. They held her gaze until they were sure she would follow, and then turned away, walking briskly to the end of the road. The woman's hair was as a crow: sleek and black. She was cloaked too heavily for the warm day, making her appearance all the more intriguing to the young girl.

Rae pushed her way through the crowd, forgetting her manners completely as she tailed the woman. She hadn't gotten much of a look at her - except the hair and eyes **-** which struck a familiarity bell in her mind; they matched her own. Curiosity overcame common sense, and she elbowed and pushed her way right into Knockturn Alley. The crowd was less here, and she was willing to bet the rancid smell of rotting meat was probably the reason.

The woman stopped at a street corner, right before turning into an alleyway. She threw back her hood and shook her head, turning back only once to look Rae in the eye before disappearing into the darkness. Rae gasped, suddenly knowing exactly why the woman had seemed so familiar. It was her mother. The little girl wasted no time in hurrying forward. Her heart ached in her chest and blood pounded in her head. _It couldn't possibly be her._ Sarah Orion died two years ago. _The dead don't come back. Do they?_

Rounding the corner and out of breath, she stopped. A rat skittered off behind a trashcan and a stray cat bounded away from her. There was no sign that anyone had entered the alleyway other than herself. She turned, looking all about her for a sign as to where the woman could have gone. There were none. The walls on her left and right appeared to be quite solid, and there was a high fence ahead of her, barricaded by an assortment of boxes and rubbish. Rae turned around to face the street, feeling quite helpless. When she did, she heard a voice behind her and felt a prick on the back.

"Who's there?" she called, whirling around. No one answered. It looked exactly how she had left it - empty. She massaged the spot on her back, feeling it tingle beneath her fingers. _A bug bite, perhaps?_

Slightly unnerved, she left the alley and walked along the road until she came back to the crowd of people she had left only moments ago. The place on her back still tingled, and it felt as if an invisible hand were drawing upon her skin. It didn't hurt, so why bother worrying about it?

Wandering back down Diagon Alley, her thoughts and memories blurred together, fusing the woman she had just seen and her mother. Everything about them matched so perfectly! Yet, she knew it was impossible. She herself had been there at her mother's burial. She had heard the eulogy, felt the rain, smelled the dirt, tasted her own tears, and watched the casket being lowered into the soggy earth.

_There is no coming back._

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-

Rae blinked a few times, and shook her head, dismissing the memory. She removed her jacket and proceeded to brush off the dust and dirt. It wouldn't do to walk around the school looking like she had just stepped out of a barn. She slid her arms into the sleeves once more and looked up at Sirius, pausing.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"What?" he snapped out of his apparent reverie, thoughts still lingering in his mind. _Gorgeous. Beautiful. Stunning._ "Oh, nothing. Sorry." He apologized and quickly looked back to the cauldrons, of which there seemed to be not many left. Rae pulled her jacket on the rest of the way and stepped closer to him, reaching for another cauldron. Sirius took a deep, steadying breath. Once more, he detected the luscious scent of tangerines.

_Say something, you idiot! Make conversation! This is one-on-one time with a pretty girl!_

Rae cleared out her cauldron and moved on to the next one.

_But what should I say to her? Should I ask her about herself?_

Bree's words came back to him for at least the fourth time that night.

_Be yourself._

"So, why are you in Slytherin?" he blurted out, unable to stop his tongue procuring the words, and forthwith kicking himself mentally. However, if he had expected her to yell, smack, or glare at him in the least, he was quite mistaken, for her momentary silence before answering was not a hostile one.

"I don't rightly know," she said, slowly. She set down a clean cauldron and picked up a dirty one. "I'm certainly no pureblood. As you probably know, my father is a muggle." Sirius thought he detected a hint of bitterness here, although he really couldn't blame her. "My mother was a witch, but I never knew about her bloodline. She was adopted by a pair of muggles when she was a child."

"You said 'was'. Did she, er, pass away?" he asked cautiously, not wanting to upset her by talking about a dead family member.

"Yes, she died years ago. I was nine." Rae's voice had grown quiet. Sirius opened his mouth to tell her that he was sorry - that he had no idea what she had been through - to tell her _something_ - but she continued to speak. "I was born in Marlow but we moved to Richmond after Mum died. Dad got a great job opportunity there, so he took it, and we moved. Of course," she added, her mouth curving into a small, but sad, smile, "we both knew why he _really_ decided to move. After you lose someone you love, it isn't easy to be reminded of them daily."

Sirius nodded in what he hoped looked like understanding. He tried to imagine how horrible it would be to lose James or Remus, but couldn't summon the feeling. Maybe this was one of those things that could only be learned by experience. He looked at Rae, wanting to say something nice or comforting to her. Nothing.

"Oh, look!" she abruptly exclaimed. "We're done!"

Sirius sighed in the relief of tension. He looked at his watch. "Finally. It's almost midnight. I'll go tell him that we've finished."

"Right." Rae stood uncomfortably for a moment before buttoning her jacket. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a pot of lip balm. The wind was picking up outside, and the dungeon really caught the draft. She liked the cold, but chapped lips were not fun in the least.

A moment later, Sirius came out of the office with Professor Jackyl at his heels. Their teacher looked at the cauldrons stacked beside the cabinet, gave an approving nod, and sent them off.

"I don't want to catch either of you being late to my class again, do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, professor."

"Good night, then." He walked back into his office and shut the door. Rae and Sirius started down the stone passageway together, both shivering slightly from the drafts about their necks.

"Which is your direction?" Sirius asked, quietly, already knowing the answer.

"The next left past that statue up ahead," she replied.

"I'll walk with you, if you like," he offered, hope apparent in his voice.

"You don't have to do that," she said quickly. "It's cold, and you're not wearing a cloak or anything. You'd better get back to your dormitory-" She stopped speaking as Sirius's shoulder brushed her own, sending a shiver down her spine.

"I want to."

"Oh." Rae wasn't quite sure what to say to this. She rarely talked to anyone in the castle, as far as students went. Having one offer to walk her to her dormitory was quite strange, indeed. "Alright, then."

They turned the corner, and Rae said good-night.

"Wait," he blurted as she turned to leave him. "Do you eat breakfast?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, quite taken aback by this random question. "Well, yes, sometimes."

"Okay, so, uh, don't go to the Great Hall for breakfast tomorrow, and, uh, if you do, don't sit down," he stuttered. He mentally kicked himself for the lack of his usual smooth appeal.

"Can I ask-?"

"No, it's better if you don't know. Just… don't sit on the benches at the Slytherin table."

A bell went off somewhere in Rae's head, and she understood. The famous Marauders were pulling another prank, and she has just been tipped off about it. "Ah, right. Thanks." She tried to give a grateful smile, but she was quite tired, so it turned into a yawn instead.

"Good night… Rae."

"Good night, Sirius."

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A/N: Wow, that took me a long time to get up. I apologize for the wait, but computers seem to hate me. The flashback at the begining was beta'd by forsakenphoenix; I don't think she writes on here, but she's on like every other HPFF site out there, so you may have read her stuff, which is totally awesome. The rest of it wasn't beta'd, seeing as how I just finished writing it like ten minutes ago. Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, just review already. --wink--

Love you guys!


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